Hundreds of Palestinians attended a funeral in Gaza City on Sunday for 75 people whose remains were recently recovered from beneath the rubble of destroyed homes. The victims included women and children, according to Gaza Civil Defence officials.
The funeral procession began outside the Daraj Sports Club in eastern Gaza City before the remains were taken for burial at Sheikh Radwan Cemetery. Families had been able to view the remains the previous evening. Civil Defence public-relations director Abdullah al-Majdalawi said recovery teams had found them over recent weeks in several destroyed homes in the Daraj neighbourhood.
The victims belonged to around 20 Palestinian families, including people who had been displaced and were sheltering in the homes, al-Majdalawi said. He said the buildings were struck while residents were inside during the early months of the war.
The recovery work is part of a second phase of a Civil Defence project launched on July 19 to search for people trapped beneath destroyed buildings. Officials said the phase covers 147 homes across Gaza City and parts of northern and central Gaza, where more than 1,000 people were believed to remain under rubble. They have warned that a lack of heavy machinery and other equipment is slowing the work.
Civil Defence spokesman Mahmoud Basal said more than 8,000 missing Palestinians were still believed to be under rubble across Gaza as of October 7. The agency has said that limited resources make it difficult to locate and recover all those still missing.
